


A sandpiper and a herring gull

by Mary_the_gardener



Category: Parade's End - All Media Types
Genre: Double Drabble, Gen, Great Groby Tree
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:00:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25190518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mary_the_gardener/pseuds/Mary_the_gardener
Comments: 3
Kudos: 1
Collections: Multifandom Drabble 2020





	A sandpiper and a herring gull

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ashling](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ashling/gifts).



The dark bottomless hole looked back at Tietjens while swallowing his coin, still without making a sound. The sky too, seemed more quite than how he remembered it: there were swallows flying and screaming around, but where were the collared doves, the tits, the larks? The trusty skylarks that did not care whether their nest had been upset by the Austrian guns or by the roaring Australian apparatus hired by some Mrs. du Gray Pipe. Either way, their peace had now been disrupted. Their lairs had been thrown down, along with a good part of the Groby house.

From where he was, sitting on the edge of the circle of stones, his gaze could grasp the dark walls of what used to be the ball-room, could seep in the intimate corners of the house. There was nothing in front of it. Nothing to protect Groby, nothing to elevate Groby, to match and compensate the depth of the pit opening right next to him.

He looked at the men, unflustered, working around that heap of greatness that was now cramming the yard, a jumble of stones and branches, a curtain or some other piece of tapestry peeking out here and there.


End file.
